Off-Campus Living: Managing Bills for the First Time

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Are you a college student living off-campus? It’s likely this is the first time you’re responsible for your own housing. Like many firsts, it’s full of new experiences. You’ve signed a lease, picked up your new keys, and started unpacking many moving boxes filled to the brim with apartment furnishings. After you settle in, your new responsibilities will begin feeling real. Now, you’ll need to manage regular, monthly bills, including your rent and utilities.

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Create a Budget

In order to pay your bills on time, you need to know exactly what bills you have to pay! Stay organized by creating a monthly budget. You can start a list using an online spreadsheet or a notebook. Some people like the easy access online budgets provide while others prefer to think on the page. Either way, there are templates you can use to start tracking your finances.

You’ll want to record each bill and its due date. Make sure to include rent, and utilities (electric, gas, water). Depending on your location, you may also have to cover trash pick-up and wifi. That’s already 6 different payments. Things add up quickly!

Continue brainstorming your monthly expenses. Transportation costs include gas, regular car maintenance, or bus and train tickets. Do you pay for your phone bill, streaming services, or gym memberships? How much do you spend on groceries? You should consider every regular expense, no matter how small.

Keeping an organized budget will help you visualize how much money you spend and where it is going. This will help you pay bills on time, and it may even become a useful tool for seeing where you can cut costs.

Automatic Payments

Now that you have a list of your bills, you can work on paying them. Though it may seem overwhelming, especially if this is your first time handling bills, many services provide automatic payment systems.

Automatic payments connect to your bank account or credit card. When your payment is due, it is automatically deducted from your account and sent to your biller. You don’t have to mail checks or remember all of the right dates to transfer money over.

If you are using automatic payments, it’s important to regularly check your bank and credit accounts. It can be easy to ignore your bank statements since payments are handled for you. However, checking your accounts is a good habit to develop. It ensures that your money is managed correctly. If your bank account doesn’t have the right amount of money for your automatic payment, you might face problems like your water suddenly turning off.

Understanding Credit

Credit cards can make you feel like you have unlimited money. They allow you to spend money before you have it, as long as the amount is under your given limit. This can be useful, especially if your paychecks are infrequent. Credit cards often give you points or cash-back rewards for spending money. Certain credit card companies even offer special student accounts or discounts.

Credit cards may feel like freedom, but it’s incredibly important to be responsible when using one. Anything you spend will have to be paid back at the end of the month. If you can’t pay in full when your credit card bill is due, you will have to pay interest. Your credit score may suffer, too.

One strategy is to use your credit card like a debit card. This means only using it when you are sure you have the exact amount of money you’re spending already in your bank account. This ensures that you will be able to pay your credit card bill in full at the end of the month.

You should also stay educated about credit. Your credit score is assigned to you based on how reliable creditors perceive you to be. Higher credit scores mean you’re more likely to pay your bills on time. How you manage your credit card bills now will affect your credit score. This will continue to impact you throughout your life. You’ll appreciate having a good credit score when you’re applying for apartments or securing loans for a new car.

Track Expenses

Your budget outlines how much you intend to spend throughout the month. You should keep track of how much you actually spend in order to make sure reality aligns with your projected plan. Sometimes unexpected expenses come up. Maybe your car got a flat tire or your electric bill is higher than usual.

Updating your budget throughout the month will create a clear picture of your spending habits. This can help you better estimate future expenses, and maybe even show areas where you can cut down on spending. For example, turning off the lights when not in use may help with that extra high electric bill.

Overall, staying organized and keeping track of your expenses will help you manage your new bills now that you live off-campus. Managing bills is an important skill that you will continue to hone throughout your life!

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